Usfl Must Win Or Fold: Trump

June 24, 1986|By Michael O`Donnell.

New Jersey Generals` owner Donald Trump said Monday the National Football League has such a monopoly on pro football that the United States Football League should consider folding if it loses its $1.5 billion antitrust case.

Trump stunned USFL commissioner Harry Usher and NFL attorney Frank Rothman with his statement. He said his Generals may drop out of the USFL if the case is lost. Trump`s statements came during cross-examination by Rothman in New York.

``If we do not show victory, my feeling is that the league should not play,`` Trump said. ``We will not be able to compete against the horror that is the NFL. Jobs and millions of dollars hinge on this trial.``

``That is Don`s opinion, but that doesn`t mean he won`t play,`` Usher said. ``Our owners are committed to playing in 1986.``

Trump also said that around 1981, he talked about buying the Baltimore Colts and also discussed buying into the USFL. He said he talked to NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle about it.

``He said it was going to be doomed to failure,`` Trump testified. ``That there weren`t enough people who watched football in the spring. He said that if the league moved to fall it would also fail because he controlled the networks. He said, `There is no way possible you`ll ever get a TV contract in the fall.` ``

Drugs linked to Bias

Arthur Marshall, state`s attorney for Prince Georges County, Md., said it now seems certain ``that cocaine was involved in the death of Len Bias.``

Marshall said he is convinced cocaine was present in the dormitory room where Bias, a Maryland All-America, collapsed early Thursday morning, two days after he was selected by the Boston Celtics as the second player taken in the NBA draft.

Marshall said field tests showed an envelope found in Bias` car contained cocaine. Marshall also said he has been told traces of cocaine were found in a urine sample tested at the hospital where Bias was pronounced dead.

Marshall said he will go ahead with a criminal investigation into the events surrounding Bias` death and will begin presenting evidence to the grand jury next Tuesday.

-- Dane County Circuit Judge George Northrup has denied a motion for a separate trial for George Williams Jr., one of three former Minnesota basketball players accused of sexually assaulting a Madison, Wis., woman. Williams wanted to be tried separately from Mitchell Lee and Kevin Smith, arguing their testimony is essential to his defense. Northrup said Williams failed to produce affidavits from either co-defendant indicating their willingness to waive Fifth Amendment rights. The trial is scheduled for the week of July 14.

Jackson`s fortune: $460,487

The popular belief is that Bo Jackson turned down $7.6 million from the NFL`s Tampa Bay Buccaneers to sign a $5 million baseball contract with the Kansas City Royals. Informed sources say the Royals will pay him a fraction of that amount.

``His contract is similar to (Texas rookie) Pete Incaviglia`s,`` the source said. ``He`s getting--and I haven`t seen the contract--$100,000 (a season), $100,00 and $160,487.`` With a signing bonus of $100,000, the total package would be $460,487.

A source in the Royals` organization said the figures were ``low, but a heck of a lot more accurate`` than the $5 million for five years.

So why did Jackson, a Heisman Trophy winner, turn down the big football bucks? Two reasons:

(1) ``I never had my legs cut on,`` Jackson said. ``And I plan never to go in the hospital as far as my knees are concerned.``

(2) ``My mother was against it,`` Jackson said a few years ago. ``She was afraid I`d get hurt. And she`d sometimes lock me out of the house when I came home from practice.``

-- Bears` coach Mike Ditka, playing in the Amana VIP golf tourney in Iowa City, said of Jackson: ``He took the way that was best for him. If it doesn`t work out, I`m sure there`ll be a place for him in the NFL.``

-- Oakland`s Dave Kingman sent a female sportswriter a gift-wrapped live mouse during Monday night`s game against Kansas City. Sue Fornoff of the Sacramento Bee said she and Kingman have had problems since she took over the A`s beat last season.

``A guard brought me a package in the first inning and said he was told to deliver it to me,`` Fornoff said. ``There was a piece of paper with the mouse that said, `My name is Sue.` I had no idea what was happening.``

Kingman was waiting for Fornoff when reporters entered the clubhouse following the game.

``Here, go ahead and cry,`` he said, tossing tissue paper at her. ``Go ahead and cry.`` She did not cry.

``It was just a practical joke,`` he said. ``Everybody`s been moping around, and I just thought it would be funny.``

``Dave said it was just meant to be a joke, but I didn`t think it was funny,`` manager Jackie Moore said.